Traditions: Communion (Part 1)

Speaker:
Aaron Couch
Series
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Traditions
4.18.21

Good morning family. How are you? I'm so excited. I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you. We are going to take this week and next week, and we're going to wrestle with communion. Why do we do it? What is it? Where'd it come from? Why do we do it every week as a church? And so this week, today, we're going to spend time talking about the origins of communion. And then next week, we're going to do a nice leisurely stroll through 2000 years of church history. Easy. Easy. We will be moving at an incredible rate of speed, but, we're going to focus in on the origination of what we call the Lord's Supper or communion, or if you came from a more liturgical tradition, they will call it the Eucharist. Sometimes you can hear it's called that. But we're going to talk about this, where did it come from.

So I'm super stoked. This is all rooted in the Passover, which we just a couple of weeks ago celebrated Easter and the whole good Friday. And all of those things are all part of the Passover tradition in the Christian, from the Christian side. So we want to take a look at that. Now we're going to look at the Seder dinner that the Lord’s Supper, that communion, was taken from, kind of originates from. And specifically, if you've been to a Seder dinner, you may or may not have been to a modern Seder. It's slightly different than the Seder of the first century, but, and that's wonderful. There's nothing wrong with it, but I'm particularly interested in the ancient Seder and how it ties to the gospel stories. How we see it being played out in what the gospels are saying.

And so that's what we're going to focus on because I think that what we'll see there is something that's really, in my opinion, it's very compelling, and it moves me. It moves me to tears every time that I think about it. So at least three times today. So we're going to begin in Exodus chapter six. And the reason is because you have to understand that the Passover is all rooted in deliverance. It is all about the oppressed. It's about ending slavery. It's about getting over those things that keep us stuck. That's what the Passover is. And so it's the festival to commemorate the Israelites being delivered out of Egypt and into the promised land. And so this is really important because they leave Egypt as slaves, and they come into the promised land as his bride. What does that transition look like? Because for you and I, that would be something worth knowing. How do we move from being oppressed slaves to a true sense of intimacy with God?

We're going to talk about that today. Exodus chapter six, starting in verse six. Here's what it says:

“Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I'm the Lord, and I'll bring you out from under the burdens of the depressions, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.”

Now in this passage, there are four promises. Each one of those four promises is represented by one of the four cups of wine in the Seder dinner. And so as we move through the story of the Exodus, we take a moment, and we remember the promises of God by drinking a glass of wine.

Think about this. Now we give the disciples a bad rap for not being able to stay awake, but they drank four glasses of wine, had a really big meal, and sat outside in the dark. What would you do? Right. Cut them some slack.

This first cup is called the cup of sanctification. And it's rooted in the promise that God gives, “I will bring you out from under the yoke of slavery.” And that's really something that, like, okay, what does that look like? What does that mean exactly? And all that stuff. Think about it in terms of addiction. Like, is there any thing that you are a slave to in your life? Maybe food or, disengaging, like you're not using your time well, you're trying to escape. Escapism is its own form of addiction, because we don't want to cope with the world that we're living in. Maybe we're hiding in drugs or alcohol or pornography, or whatever, whatever, whatever. If there's a space in your life where you're like, this thing has got the best of me, then you know what it feels like to be brought out from under the yoke of slavery. Like, I want to be free of that. I want to have a life of meaning and purpose. I don't want to have obstacles that get in my way.

“I'll bring you out from under the yoke of slavery.” And this is such a great promise to the addict, right? Like you're not going to be addicted to the drugs anymore. But that raises this question, right? Like yay, God, thank you. But, but the problem is I know that tomorrow I'm going to wake up, and I'm going to want to use again. Like, that's just the way addiction works. Like I'm to want to, I'm gonna want to use it because it's bigger to me than just this chemical addiction. Like it's a coping skill. It's become a part of my story. And so I know I'm going to want to use again. And God's like, “Okay, that's okay, because I'll free you from being a slave to it.”

That's the second cup, the promise of freedom from being the slave to anything. This is the cup of deliverance. And it's so important to us to understand that. That God doesn't just set us free. He doesn't just bring us out from under the yoke of slavery, but he also delivers us from the desire to go back, which

leads us to this next really important moment where the addict says, “But God. I'm not, I don't even know how to receive that. I'm not worth that kind of effort. Like I'm in the place I am, because I don't believe I'm worth really loving.” And so when God goes, “You know what, good news I got you. I'm going to redeem you with an outstretched arm and mighty acts of judgment.”

Now, what does the word redeem mean? In the, in the modern evangelical era, we have translated it to “buy back,” and it does mean to buy back, but it's bigger than that. There's five definitions of the word redeem. And there's really only one that really works in this context. That is this. Think about when you go to the store to redeem a coupon. It's a piece of paper with ink on it, right? Like it has no value. It has no intrinsic value in and of itself, but because of who holds it, it's ascribed value. And that paper becomes worth something because of who said it was worth something. Not because it carries worth, but because of who said it was worth something. Are you with me? This is the idea of redeeming. God is saying to you, “No, no, no, no. I'm going to show you how much you’re worth. I know you don't feel like it, I know. I'm going to bring you out.” “But I'm going to want to use again.” “That's all right. I'm going to take the desire.” “But I'm not worth that kind of love.” And God goes, “Oh, yes, you are. You're worth every bit.”

Now the fourth cup then is the cup attached to this fourth promise. “I will take you as my people,” right? Like, God, I know you're going to bring me out. I know you're going to deliver me. I know you're going to give me value, but God, I don't know how to be a human in the world. God's like, "That's okay. I'm going to, I'm going to show you. I'm going to take you to myself.” And the word "to take” there is the Hebrew word that describes what a husband does to his wife on their wedding night. If you say the Hebrew word there, too, in Israeli, they'll blush.

But that’s, lay all the perverted nonsense away from that, and understand the level of connected intimacy that God wants with his people. Like this isn't about a God who winds the world up and then just stands back and watches it function. This is a God who wants to be intimately connected to his people, alive and close and personal and real with his people. Which means that if you and I aren't experiencing God in our life, there's a foundational problem in the way that I'm pursuing my worth with him and understanding his desire to connect with me. If we don't get that right, then we miss so much.

And so these four cups, this is really the central feature. These four promises. This is a central feature of the Seder meal. Now there's some pieces in the Seder meal that we need to talk about, and I'm not going to give them to you in any particular order. But what I am going to do is describe them to you because they're going to show up in the gospel records.

The first one is the urchatz. Let me hear you say urchatz. I love Hebrew. Urchatz. Now, you know how sometimes when you're talking to somebody, you accidentally spit on them? If you're doing, if you're speaking Hebrew, you, you have to like, you can't even pronounce the word right unless you spit on someone. And so that's cool. But the urchatz is the washing. This is a washing that comes at the beginning of the meal. This is not the washing of Jesus with his basin and his towel. That's not him. This is a washing that will happen as we're being seated, and it's done by the person who's in lowest position. So if we think about that, we're going to have to consider, can we figure out what went on there around the gospel camp? We can; we'll get there in a minute. But this is really important. So this washing. Not about cleanliness, but about purity. It's a symbolic purification. Okay.

Now next piece that we need to know about is the yachatz. Say yachatz. It’s a three-fold napkin. It's a napkin, one with three folds. There's a three in oneness in it. Three in one, three pockets in one. What you do is, in this napkin, each one of the folds, you put, a piece of matzah bread in each one of the folds.

And then, the part of the meal, what you do is you pull the center one, the centerfold matzah bread out, and you take it like this. Now there's a lot of debate—before I do this—there’s a lot of debate about whether or not this was in Jesus's Seder meal, because some in the first century had it. And some didn’t. It has to be in the meal, and you'll understand why at the end, because this is the only place where we break bread. Now, what happens is I reach into the center pocket, and I pull out a piece of matzah, which is maybe one of the worst tasting substances on earth.

But we look at the matzah, and it's striped. It's bruised. It's pierced. And we immediately begin to think of Isaiah 53, that talks about him being pierced for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. And by his stripes, we are healed, right? And we look at this and go, “Oh my gosh, how, how do they not get it?” Here's what I think. I don't think you do. Is there anybody sitting in this room that has an Egypt they need to be delivered from, because that's what this is about. This isn't about how we evacuate this planet. This is about freedom here and now. And if we don't get that, then what Jesus is doing here misses.

This piece of bread, it’s taken and it's broken. Now, what happens is this piece of bread, one part of the piece of bread, is hidden. It goes away for a little time, but it'll be resurrected later in the meal, huh?

And then this bread, that’s retrieved at what's called the retrieval, gets broken and distributed. But it gets broken and distributed as the afikoman. Say afikoman. Afikoman means dessert. This is not a world where there's a lot of sugar. There's only two sweet things in the ancient world, honey and figs. This is the only sweet part of the meal. This bread is broken by the guest of honor, dipped in honey, and then given as dessert to the people who are guests in the meal.

And I want to read a verse. It's interesting. Luke 22:19, Jesus says, it says, “And he took the bread, and when he'd given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’”

I got honey on my fingers.

So Jesus takes this piece of bread, and he breaks it. And he says, “Guys, this is my body. So whenever you eat this meal, do it in remembrance of me. Do this, eat this bread in remembrance of me.” Which has profound implications for you and I, because we come to communion often as such a somber experience. And I don't think that was Jesus's heart at all. Jesus took the dessert. You know, the pie, the cake, the ice cream, the whatever. You eat your vegetables so that you can eat it. That thing. That's what Jesus attached to the breaking of his body. This moment in history where Jesus is going to be tortured and butchered for our faith, for our sin, Jesus goes, “Oh, this is sweet for me. And don't ever forget it. I'm not mad at you. I'm not upset. I'm not disappointed. I love you. And this, it’s my good pleasure to do it.”

Let's keep moving. Okay. After the dinner, there's an event called the rachtzah. Say, rachtzah. You got to hang out until the end. It's fine. It means the second washing. Now this is the washing where Jesus gets up, and he tucks his robe and his belt. He grabs a towel and puts it around his waist and a basin of water. And he goes and washes their feet. This isn't supposed to be a feet washing. This is supposed to be a hand washing. And if you think about it, both are ceremonial washing, but in the ancient world where you were sandals everywhere you go and you're walking on dirt roads, which one is more nastier? Your feet for sho, right? That's terrible.

Now think about this. Think about this. Right before Jesus does that, there is a conversation that breaks out amongst the disciples about who's the greatest. What a weird conversation to be having at this point. What an odd… and to make note of it is even odder. Like, why do I need to know that detail?

Let me show you a picture. [image on screen] This is the table that would have been used. Not that this is literally the table. It's a diagram that I made. And this is why I don't work with our creative design team. But, the table that they would have used in the first century is called a triclinium. It's a three that, you only sit on three sides. And it has a cutout in the middle where servants come ,and think Texas Hold ‘Em, like a poker table. Right? Same, same concept. And I know a lot of you guys, “I don't know what that is. Um, what are talking about?” Yeah, you do. Come on. You know what I'm talking about. But the servants step into that space, and they serve everybody. Now, the table is about 18 inches off the ground. Okay. We recline at the table by laying down with our feet behind us, our head towards the table, and we lean on our left elbow. Why do we lean on our left elbow? Where we lean on our left elbow? Because in a world with not any toilet paper, you never eat with your left hand. Your left hand is used for other things. You with me? You guys are like, “Gross.” You got to do something, right?

Now, so they're leaning on their left side with their feet behind them, right? And Jesus begins to stand up and wash their feet. Now here's the cool thing—we can figure out where almost everybody is sitting. The rest of them are educated speculation. But let me show you how this works. The guest of honor will always sit on the left-hand side, and they sit in groups of three. They sit in triads. And so Jesus is sitting in, he's the big circle, right? He's the guest of honor.

Now at his left hand is the person who paid for the meal. Who is sitting at Jesus's left-hand? Judas. We know that for two reasons. Number one, we know it because Judas carried the purse. He carried the money bag for the apostles. Okay. The other reason that we know that is because Jesus said the one that's going to betray me is the one that will dip his bread in the water when I do. Well, so he had to be close enough to be able to do that. Right? So it's the only logical thing.

Now you can go, “Whoa, what if he's on his right side?” Well, we know who's sitting on his right side, too. Right? There's this weird thing that happens in the gospel of John, where all the way up through the Last Supper, John is just kind of plugging along. And then all of a sudden from the Last Supper onto the end of his gospel, he calls himself the disciple whom Jesus loved. Right? Why? Because he's the one that reclined on Jesus's chest. That's what we're told. At the Last Supper, he reclines on Jesus's chest. Well, let's think about that. So Jesus is laying on his left hand with his feet behind him, and he's facing to his right. Right? So who's sitting on his right? John is.

Which raises a really weird question. What the heck is John doing at Jesus's right hand? Because everybody has placed an order of importance. That's just true, culturally. They do that at every meal, right? So who should be sitting there? Peter should be sitting there, but he's not there. John's there. Which raises a fascinating question. Where's Peter? Well, let's think about it. If we go all the way around the table, which one of those angles is the only one that has a good angle if they're on their left side with their feet behind them, leaning in towards the table, which is the only one that has a position to ask, “Hey, John. Ask Jesus who's going to betray him.” Peter's all the way over here in the position of the lowest honor, which is why a conversation breaks out about who's the greatest, because Jesus has jacked them all up. He's messed with all the feng shui of the group.

Okay. I mean, he probably wouldn't have called it that, but he might. So Peter's all the way—and he's leaning in, and he looks up at John, like, “Hey, John, ask him.” And so John leans back against his chest. “Hey Jesus.” So who did the urchatz? The first washing. Peter did it. And it was a washing of their feet.

Now at the rachtzah, which is supposed to be just a washing of the hands, Jesus does this really weird thing. And so well, let's, let's look at the scripture, John 13, three through 10. Here's what it says:

“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, that he'd come from God and was going back to God, rose from the supper. And he laid aside his outer garments and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. And then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. And he came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, do you wash my feet?’” Why does Peter, why does Peter asked that question? Well, there's several reasons. One is because he's already done it. Like, Peter’s in this position where—and again, it's so important for us to recognize this is an honor shame culture. Peter's trying to save face here. He’s like, what, what? You, it's not enough that you humiliated me by putting me in this position, but now you're doing the same washing I already did. Did I not do it good enough? What's the problem? Like, am I not enough? Am I not enough for you? And so Peter’s going to speak out of this really insecure place. Why? Because Jesus put him in the position of lowest honor. “Jesus answered him, ‘What I'm doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.’ And Peter said to him, ‘You shall never wash my feet.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘If I don't wash you, you have no share with me.' Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet but also my hands and my head!’” You see, he's trying to be like, get a moment where Jesus goes, “Oh well, touché, Mr. Peter.” You know, like he's trying to have this space where Jesus is like, “Oh, well done.” You know? He's trying to have the space. And Jesus does this, “Peter, shut up. Would you pay attention to what's happening here?” Right? He's like, “I'm actually in the kingdom's economy, I'm actually putting you in the position of highest honor, but the first will be last. And the last will be first. That's the upside down way at works. So learn to be the servant of all. Cause I'm about to leave Peter. And if you, as the one who's going to be the foundation stone of the church, if you don't get this right, then the DNA of what we're building here is all for nothing.”

"Jesus said to him, ‘The one who's bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you're clean, but not every one of you.’”

Now after the dinner, it says that Jesus took a cup. Which cup? There's only four of them to choose from. Well, let's think about it. This, these two are immediately eliminated because they're before the dinner. So we have the cup of redemption, and we have the cup of protection. Which if you piece the gospels together, you can pretty safely deduce that Jesus doesn't drink this cup [the cup of protection]. His disciples do, but he does not. Which only leaves this cup, this cup of redemption. This cup of “You are worthy. I love you. You have value.” Jesus takes this, and he goes to this cup, this one, this one right here. Not any of these other ones. This one, this cup. “It's a new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. So whenever you drink this cup, always remember me.”

That's what he's doing. And what he says to them, and it's so beautiful, he says, “In my father's house are many rooms. I'm going to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I'm going to return. And I don't know what the day or the hour. Only my father knows.”

Right, what’s he saying? Why does he say that? King James translates it many mansions. It's a terrible translation. It's terrible because it's not about mansions. He's talking about insular living. The way it works is, in their world all marriages are arranged. And so when the groom and the bride kind of, they kind of make eyes, and the dads notice. And so the dads come together, and they have a conversation and a dowery is exchanged. And then the groom has to write a ketubah. The ketubah is the wedding contract. And the wedding contract is something that is basically his 50,000 foot view of marriage. And, he goes, then he and his dad will go and he takes his ketubah and a glass of wine with him. And he sits down with the bride to be and her dad, and he places the glass of wine on the table. And he reads the ketubah.

If she accepts, she drinks the glass of wine. If not, she can reject a glass of wine. Now we don't have any examples in history of anyone actually doing that. But she has the option to walk away at that point. And then this is what he would say to her ceremonially: “I’m going back to my father's house to prepare a room for you. In my father's house are many rooms, but I'm going to prepare a place for you. And I'm going to, if I go to prepare a place for you, I'm going to come back and get you. And I don't know when. Only my dad knows when.” Because the dad was the one who had the final say so.

So much more I'd like to say about that. Come with me to Israel; we’ll have a full conversation.

But gee, what is Jesus doing? Jesus is reinstituting this marriage covenant between God and his people at the place, at the festival, where we remember the marriage covenant between God and his people. Like it's brilliant. But he goes, this cup, this cup of worth, like the central reality of us being able to succeed in our walk with Jesus is understanding how valuable we are to God. It's not understanding right theology or making right choices, even though that's a piece of all the picture. That’s part of it. That's not eliminated. But the crux that gives us success is knowing how much God loves you.

And now they leave the upper room, and they go down into the Kidron Valley, across the Valley and into the garden for what's called leyl shimurim. The watching. And here's what the watching is. The scriptures teach that before Messiah can come, Elijah has to return. And so what they do is they have the oldest son sit up all night and wait for the coming of Elijah. And so every Seder still to this day, every Seder has an empty chair for Elijah. Beause we want, if Elijah shows up, we want to be ready for him. And this is one, this is where we really focus on his coming, this potential coming. Now, nobody really thinks he's going to show up. And some of the people even nailed Elijah's chair to the wall so that nobody else will sit in it. They'll put it up and nail it on a wall, but the watching happens. And so they go out into the garden for leyl shimurim. The watching, right? And then it says this. Mark 14:33:

“And he took with him, Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled,” which is the most vanilla translation of the Greek words there that you could possibly find. Let's do a little bit of a Greek word study.

Here we go. This is an interlinear [picture on screen]. It helps us see the English along with the Greek words that are being translated there. So, “And he took along Peter and James and John with him and began to be distressed and troubled.” “…ekthambeo kai ademoneo.” Oh, Ooh. “Ekthanmbeo.” It’s just fun to say. “Kai ademoneo.” What do those words mean? Well, let's take a look at them. Let's look at ekthambeo. Ekthambeo means to throw into an amazement or terror; to alarm thoroughly or to terrify. And again, this is so hard for us to attach the emotion to it, but this isn't a like, “Oh, I'm so surprised.” This is like your worst fear jumped out from behind a bush and is right here. You are in absolute catastrophic terror and failing to understand how to grasp the situation, right? Like you are ridiculously shocked. Does that make sense? That's what we're talking. Greatly distressed.

This is like the dreaded giant, “All your nightmares are about to come true.” Right? You guys are like, “What is that?” That was my Andre, the giant impersonation from the legendary movie The Princess Bride.

Okay. That’s, that's what this was for Jesus. All of a sudden it's like he wasn't there. And then all of a sudden, something hits him in like right between the eyes, metaphorically speaking. And it's like, “Oh no, no.”

Let's look at the next word here. Ademoneo. Oh, is feeling uncomfortable, as in not at home, like to be troubled in distress. Like, this is so unsettling to me. It’s just like, I don't, I don't belong in this moment. Like another way to understand this is that Jesus is suddenly shocked to this new awareness. What is it? What is it? What has got Jesus so shook? Well, I think we can know based on what he says next. Did you know that in the Passover, there was this great debate about whether or not there should be a fifth cup? The debate raged. And even today I have a friend, Moshay, who lives in Jerusalem, who writes about these things. And he's got a book on the festivals. He has an extended section in his book as part of the Passover about the fifth cup. Should there be a fifth cup or not? And so the argument goes like this. The argument goes that there's only four promises in Exodus six. So there's no place for that cup yet. But, there’s, what cup do you think that Pharaoh drank? There's a cup there. And here's the cup that they're talking about. And they couldn't decide it, by the way, they couldn't decide it. So they called it Elijah's cup. But when Elijah comes, he'll explain it. Or they called it the prophet’s cup, is another way to understand it.

But here's, here's the cup that they're talking about.Psalm 75:8 says this: “For in the hand of the Lord, there's a cup full of foaming wine well-mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.” Here's another verse, Psalm 69:24 says this, “Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them.” Here’s another cup, verse. Psalm 79:6 says this, “Pour out your anger on the nations that you do not know, and on the kingdoms that do not call upon your name!” Here's another verse that talks about this. So you could see the, why there's such a debate, because this is all over their scriptures. Jeremiah 25 verses 15 and 16. Here's what it says, “Thus, the Lord, the God of Israel said to me, ‘Take from my hand this cup of the wine of my wrath, and make it all the nations to whom I send you, drink it. They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.”

And so this cup of wrath becomes this big debate. And I'm like, we don't know what to do with it. Some people said, “Yes.” Some people said, “No.” Well, when Elijah comes, he'll explain it to us. Here's what I think we're looking at when Jesus becomes suddenly like, “No. No, not that. No. I'm not even, not even I'm ready to deal with that.” Mark 14:36 says this, “Abba father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not my will, but what you will.” This is so going to shake Jesus that he's going to sweat drops of blood. What cup needs to be removed from him? So here's my thing. I believe that Jesus always believed that he was doing this to get rid of the cup of wrath. I think that what he finally became suddenly shockingly aware of is that in order to do that, he would have to drink it.

My family, he drank every drop. Not because he wanted to, but because you and I were depending on him. We didn't know it. We didn't even know we needed it. And he drank every drop. Listen to me. In Christ, there is no wrath left. That oughta move you. When I learned this teaching, I remember the next Sunday, communion wasn't the same. I just, it, it sat in a different place for me. And after church service was over, I took my communion cup, and I opened my Bible to Mark 14:36. And I turned my communion cup upside down on the Bible. And I took a picture of it and sent it to my, to the person who had shared this with me. I was like, I don't know how to say thank you. I don't know how to say thank you.

Jesus drank every drop.

I have some implications for us, and I'm going to move through them fairly quickly. And implication number one is this: In Christ, there is no wrath left. And I don't know how you stay in your seat over that. Cause I can tell you, I know what I deserve. In Christ, there’s no wrath. He took it all.

Implication number two: Jesus isn't angry that he had to lay down his life for us. It was his good pleasure to do it.

Implication number three: Through this sacrifice, Jesus shows us how much value we have in his eyes. You are worth; you’re worthy. “No, I’m not. I'm a worm. I'm awful. I'm horrible.” You demean Jesus’ sacrifice because apparently he thought you were worth something.

Number four: It is our amazing privilege to reconnect to the sacrifice each week. It's our incredible privilege to reconnect to the sacrifice every week. And so we do. Take your communion out. And with all this being said, we're going to partake in communion. Jesus took this afikoman, and he broke it, and he dipped it in honey. And he said, “Guys, this, this, this is my body, which is given for you. So whenever you eat this, do it in remembrance of me.” Let's remember him.

And then after the dinner, he took a cup. This cup. See these three cups tell you how much God's worth. This one says how much you're worth to him. This cup. “This is a new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. So whenever you drink this cup, do it in remembrance of me.”

Let’s pray. God, I don't even know how to say thank you. I don't even know where to begin to understand the love. Your heart for us as your people. God, thank you for this little reminder that we do each week, that helps us never forget that your decision to give your only son and Jesus’ decision to walk through everything that he did, God, it’s rooted in how much you love us.

God, as we consider this thing we call communion, may we never take that for granted. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Let's stand and sing one more song.

So I hope that you never ever, ever, ever, ever forget how much Jesus loves you. And I hope that communion becomes this checkpoint in your week, every week, where you can fall back into that. Man, I kind of let that slide. I took it for granted, but this is just the small reminder to help us remember how much Jesus loves us. And may we be people who walk out of here and live that love out well in our community because he loves them just as much.

If you're struggling with that, we have some people up here in front to pray with you. We'll be happy to do that. Or you can pray in our prayer room. That'd be fine as well. But let's not leave out of here with the same trite view of God's love for us, but hopefully it's deepened us a step in our walk with him. Thank you so much for coming. Have a great week.